BBC Red Button is a brand used for digital interactive television services provided by the BBC, and broadcast in the United Kingdom. The services replaced Ceefax, the BBC's analogue teletext service. BBC Red Button's text services were due to close on 30 January 2020, but the switch off was suspended on 29 January 2020 following protests.

History and branding

The service was launched on 23 September 1999 as BBC Text. It was relaunched in November 2001 under the BBCi brand and operated under this name until late 2008, when it was rebranded as BBC Red Button. The "red button" name refers to the common interface on remote controls for digital televisions and set-top boxes, a red

push-button A push-button (also spelled pushbutton) or simply button is a simple switch mechanism to control some aspect of a machine or a process. Buttons are typically made out of hard material, usually plastic or metal. The surface is usually flat or sh ...

that launches digital teletext services. Although initially marketed as a spectacular new form of television, by 2008 this had given way to positioning iTV as ‘everyday’. This was due in part to the institutional landscape of television in the UK. In September 2009, the BBC celebrated 10 years of the digital interactive TV service.

BBC Text (1999–2001)

BBC Text originally launched on digital terrestrial services on 23 September 1999, and was later introduced on satellite and cable platforms. In the first phase, the service was created using content migrated from the existing analogue teletext service, Ceefax. A digital text service had been available since the launch of digital terrestrial television in November 1998, but the BBC Text service was not publicly launched until November 1999, due to a lack of availability of compatible set-top boxes. BBC Text was considerably more advanced than Ceefax, in that it offered a richer visual interface, with the possibility of photographic images and designed graphics (as opposed to Ceefax graphics which were composed of simple blocks of colour). BBC Text also enabled channel association, the ability for the user to retain their selected television channel visible in one section of the screen whilst viewing the text service, in contrast to Ceefax, which could only be viewed as a full-screen display, or as a semitransparent overlay (i.e. opaque blocks of colour on top of the television channel, with the black background now transparent; not 'translucent blocks of colour with a translucent black background') above the television picture. The original text service had no return path, this being made available in later phases. BBC Text pioneered an early form of " on-demand" interactive television, called Enhanced TV. During the

1999 Wimbledon Championships The 1999 Wimbledon Championships was a tennis tournament played on grass courts at the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club in Wimbledon, London in the United Kingdom. It was the 113th edition of the Wimbledon Championships and were held fro ...

, the BBC presented a service that allowed viewers to select a video stream of different matches, and access additional information such as player profiles, scores and interactive quizzes. Although the experimental service was publicly available, there were no digital set-top boxes or receivers available on the market that could decode the signal, and the service was presented to the public only via BBC demonstrations using prototype receivers.

The BBCi brand (2001–2008)

The BBCi brand launched in November 2001 and was conceived as a cohesive multi-platform brand name for all the BBC's digital interactive services, encompassing the corporation's digital teletext, interactive television and website services. According to the BBC, the "i" in BBCi stood for "interactivity" as well as "innovation". The various services all took on a common interface device, an "i-bar" branded with the BBCi logo, which sought to emphasise the brand across different technologies by providing similar navigation. For example, the BBC website, which had previously been called BBC Online, took on the BBCi brand from 2001, displaying an i-bar across the top of every page, offering a category-based navigation: Categories, TV, Radio, Communicate, Where I Live, A-Z Index, and a search. Similarly, BBC interactive television services all offered a horizontal i-bar along the bottom of television screens, with four colour-coded interactions linked to the four colour buttons on TV remote controls. After three years of consistent use across different platforms, the BBC began to drop the BBCi brand gradually; on 6 May 2004, the BBC website was renamed

bbc.co.uk BBC Online, formerly known as BBCi, is the BBC's online service. It is a large network of websites including such high-profile sites as BBC News and BBC Sport, Sport, the on-demand video and radio services branded BBC iPlayer and BBC Sounds, t ...

, after the main

URL A Uniform Resource Locator (URL), colloquially termed as a web address, is a reference to a web resource that specifies its location on a computer network and a mechanism for retrieving it. A URL is a specific type of Uniform Resource Identifie ...

used to access the site. Interactive TV services continued under the BBCi brand until late 2008. Today, the broadcaster's online video player, the

BBC iPlayer BBC iPlayer (stylised as iPLAYER or BBC iPLAYER) is a video on demand service from the BBC. The service is available on a wide range of devices, including mobile phones and tablets, personal computers and smart televisions. iPlayer services del ...

, reflects the branding legacy by retaining an i-prefix in its branding.

BBC Red Button HD

In June 2013, a HD version of BBC Red Button was launched for the summertime. It closed on 25 November 2013 after the 50th anniversary of

Doctor Who ''Doctor Who'' is a British science fiction television series broadcast by the BBC since 1963. The series depicts the adventures of a Time Lord called the Doctor, an extraterrestrial being who appears to be human. The Doctor explores the u ...

. It returned each year along with the other BBC Red Button channels as a temporary channel for the duration of the

Wimbledon Wimbledon most often refers to: * Wimbledon, London, a district of southwest London * Wimbledon Championships, the oldest tennis tournament in the world and one of the four Grand Slam championships Wimbledon may also refer to: Places London * ...

tennis tournament. On 26 March 2018,

CBBC HD CBBC (initialised as Children's BBC and also known as the CBBC Channel) is a British free-to-air public broadcast children's television channel owned and operated by the BBC. It is also the brand used for all BBC content for children aged 7–16 ...

began its downtime and the relaunch of BBC Red Button HD took place to cover the

2018 Commonwealth Games The 2018 Commonwealth Games, officially known as the XXI Commonwealth Games and also known as Gold Coast 2018, was an international multi-sport event for members of the Commonwealth that were held on the Gold Coast, Queensland, Australia, bet ...

. It was added on Sky on channel 981 and Freeview channel 602 on 3 April 2018 and closed on 16 April 2018 after the Games had concluded. Later in 2021, it was originally supposed to be closed on the end of Wimbledon but was kept on air for the 2020 Olympics.

The BBC Red Button brand (2008)

From 2008, the BBC gradually began to drop the BBCi name from its digital interactive TV services also, replacing it with the name BBC Red Button. The BBCi logo continued in on-screen presentation for some time.

BBC Connected Red Button (2012)

BBC Connected Red Button launched in December 2012 on Virgin TiVo and on some Freeview and Freesat 'Smart TVs' in December 2013. The service is a composite IP and broadcast service and may be the future of Red Button on internet connected televisions.

BBC Red Button+ (2015)

The service was renamed BBC Red Button+ in April 2015. It launched with an updated brand.

Partial closure (2020)

After nearly 21 years of service, the BBC announced in 2019 that due to financial cuts, the text services on Red Button on all platforms would be removed from 30 January 2020. The video services, used during events like

and the Olympic Games, however, would continue. On 29 January 2020, the BBC announced their suspension of the switch-off due to protests, one day before the service was due to have started being phased out. This announcement comes following a petition, organised by the National Federation of the Blind of the UK (NFBUK), which was submitted to the BBC and Downing Street. The petition expresses NFBUK's concerns with the switch-off, citing that the service is "vital for visually impaired, deaf, disabled and older people, as well as many other people who want to find out information independently in an easy, convenient and accessible format, who are not online." They're concerned that the withdrawal of the service would leave many already vulnerable people into further isolation and marginalisation from society. NFBUK states they cannot understand how the BBC can meet their obligations set in the Royal Charter following the cut of the Red Button Teletext service.

Availability

BBC Red Button is available on all digital television platforms in the UK, including

digital cable Digital cable is the distribution of cable television using digital data and video compression. The technology was first developed by General Instrument. By 2000, most cable companies offered digital features, eventually replacing their previou ...

through Virgin Media, digital satellite through Sky and Freesat and digital terrestrial television through Freeview. On Freeview interactivity does not permit users to submit data (such as answering questions in a quiz or requesting video on demand), as the platform does not provide a return path. BBC Red Button currently provides one video stream to all platforms, which can be accessed directly from Freeview channel 601, Freesat channel 981, Sky channel 981 (UK only) and Virgin Media UK channel 991, however the feed is standard definition only. One advantage of the feed is the DVR ability as the conventional Red Button interaction restricts DVR record / pause / rewind functions, and is a major caveat for many. It is currently unknown if the BBC plans to re-introduce a permanent high-definition service of the direct channel feed, but until they do, viewers will continue to move to rival satellite services for high-definition broadcasts of live sporting events such as tennis, cycling and snooker. The BBC does have the ability to increase the amount of streams during major events and has done so on numerous occasions, as follows: :*

2012 Olympics The 2012 Summer Olympics (officially the Games of the XXX Olympiad and also known as London 2012) was an international multi-sport event held from 27 July to 12 August 2012 in London, England, United Kingdom. The first event, the ...

: For the

2012 Summer Olympics The 2012 Summer Olympics (officially the Games of the XXX Olympiad and also known as London 2012) was an international multi-sport event held from 27 July to 12 August 2012 in London, England, United Kingdom. The first event, the ...

and with it being a home games in London for the BBC, the BBC provided 24 live streams in standard and high-definition for the duration of the games. Additional online streams could also be accessed through the internet-connected BBC Red Button+. :*

2016 Olympics ) , nations = 207 (including IOA and EOR teams) , athletes = 11,238 , events = 306 in 28 sports (41 disciplines) , opening = 5 August 2016 , closing = 21 August 2016 , opened_by = Vice President Michel Temer , cauldron = Vanderlei Cordeiro ...

: eight red button video streams were broadcast to all platforms during the

. This was in addition to

BBC Four BBC Four is a British free-to-air public broadcast television channel owned and operated by the BBC. It was launched on 2 March 2002

continually broadcasting Olympic coverage and either BBC One or

BBC Two BBC Two is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network owned and operated by the BBC. It covers a wide range of subject matter, with a remit "to broadcast programmes of depth and substance" in contrast to the more mainstream an ...

broadcasting main coverage during the course of the each day.

Content

Generally, BBC Red Button offers text and video based services, as well as enhanced television programmes which offer extra information, video or quizzes. In September 2005, BBCi launched an update to the interactivity available from the BBC's Radio channels on Freeview. Originally only Radiotext was available. After the update, users could access information about the programme, schedules, news, sport and weather. From 2005, Freeview users could access the CBBC Extra video stream. The same team behind the BBC's digital text service also launched the early incarnations of the BBC's Interactive Wimbledon and Interactive Open Golf services in 2000, which were awarded an Interactive BAFTA that year. The News Multiscreen was removed from the digital service in October 2009, to make room for future Freeview HD broadcasts.BBC – The Editors: Closing the News Multiscreen
Pete Clifton. BBC News Online. 20 October 2009 As of July 2022, the Question Time page on p155 appears to be outdated since January 2018, as it still states that the show will be returning on January 11th from Islington. Here is a table of the contents of the BBC Red Button as of July 2022:

Compatibility

The service was initially compatible with ONdigital and ITV Digital boxes, though loading speeds were slower than newer Freeview boxes. Page numbers were introduced in 2004 to aid navigation, with 3-digit page numbers matching with those of the analogue Ceefax in 2006. Pages exclusive to digital are given a four digit number. An index navigation screen was also introduced, replacing the previous BBCi Menu. The Teletext service from the UK commercial broadcasters had stopped supporting the old boxes in 2005. As of 2010, the ONdigital boxes only load pages 100 and 199 and some interactive services that use channel 301, if any other page is loaded it exits the service. Usage of these boxes dwindled further as technology developed. They used "original" technology and as such were not upgradable. Following each regional changeover to full digital TV broadcasting, the remaining units are no longer of use, as they do not support the "8K-mode" for DVB-T introduced across the UK as part of the digital switchover.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bbc Red Button 1999 establishments in the United Kingdom Television channels and stations established in 1999 BBC New Media BBC Television Digital television Interactive television